It never ceases to amaze me the xenophobia people have concerning Islam. At first I would dismiss it as the ignorant rambling of the uneducated, but now I’m not so sure.

An obsession with Islam threatens to distract the Catholic Church from dialogue with other religions, according to the top Vatican official in charge of interfaith relations.

“In a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit,” said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview published Tuesday on the Catholic Web site Terrasanta.net.

“Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions,” he said.

Indeed there are other great religious traditions, but don’t blame Islam if people aren’t interested in them!

George Bush in the lackluster waning days of his administration is beating the bin Laden horse, much like his successor wannabe , McCain. This is really getting rather boring, but let’s rehash some of Bush’s “other” statements about his determination to get Osama.

Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he’s alive at all. Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not; we haven’t heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is — really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission.

Terror is bigger than one person. And he’s just — he’s a person who’s now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He’s the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is — as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide — if, in fact, he’s hiding at all.

So I don’t know where he is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.

I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became — we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his al Qaeda killers anymore. And if we — excuse me for a minute — and if we find a training camp, we’ll take care of it. Either we will or our friends will. That’s one of the things — part of the new phase that’s becoming apparent to the American people is that we’re working closely with other governments to deny sanctuary, or training, or a place to hide, or a place to raise money.

Can we please stop this bin Laden business? If you really want to “get” Osama, shut down the ISP’s who play his tape messages and task the satellites to ffind the source of these messages. AFter all they use “energy” to be dispersed, contrary to the message by donkey of a man in a cave image people want to portray.

How did we go from the picture in the top to the one in the middle to the bottom photo in airports today? FEAR! I read where millimeter wave scanning is voluntary and if a passenger chooses NOT to have it, then they must submit to a pat down search!?!! In all my years of flying, I’ve never had one of those. Oh sure, I’ve had the “magic wand” swept around my body and been told to remove my shoes a time or two, but physical touching, or laying of hands? Never had it done in any airport. So why is this the alternative offered to body imaging scanners? In any event, for those of you more modest than the rest, make sure you wear underwear like the people in ALL of the millimeter wave scanning photos posted for public consumption, that doesn’t expose your genitals and you too can feel good about your body image being seen by someone you don’t know and can’t see. TSA? Titillating Sexual Appetites!